Silk Protein Evolution and Spider Phylogenetics: an EST Approach

丝蛋白进化和蜘蛛系统发育学：EST 方法

• 批准号: 0236020
• 负责人: Cheryl Hayashi
• 金额: $ 25万
• 依托单位: University of California-Riverside
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-09-01 至 2007-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0236020&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Silk; Protein; Evolution; Spider; Phylogenetics

Dr. Cheryl Hayashi at the University of California, Riverside has received a grant to study the evolution of spiders and their silk proteins. The dragline silks of orb-weaving spiders are highly prized as biomaterials because these protein-based fibers have remarkable combinations of strength and toughness. Most knowledge of dragline silks comes from studies done on two species. With over 34,000 described species, and with most species spinning multiple types of silks in addition to the dragline, spider silks are incredibly diverse. Very little is actually known about the mechanical properties and genetics of spider silks. Dr. Hayashi's first goal is to document the extensive molecular and biomechanic variation of spider silks. To do this, she will perform tensile tests of silk fibers spun by different species of spiders, and will then clone the gene transcripts that are expressed in silk gland tissue. The second goal of her study is to trace how silk gene sequences have changed as spiders evolved. This work involves reconstructing the phylogenetic history of spiders from DNA sequences.To accomplish her research objectives, Dr. Hayashi will train a postdoctoral scientist and a graduate student. In addition, undergraduate students at the University of California, Riverside will participate through small, independent projects that are designed to be completed within one or two academic quarters. The results of Dr. Hayashi's studies will advance the state of knowledge of silk proteins and spider evolution, and will significantly enlarge the international database of spider DNA sequences. The work is also relevant to commercial technologies that are being developed to mass-produce artificial spider silk. Correlational data that link performance of silk fibers to specific silk gene sequences are critical for the design of novel biomaterials.

加州大学河滨分校的 Cheryl Hayashi 博士获得了一笔资助，用于研究蜘蛛及其丝蛋白的进化。 圆织蜘蛛的拖丝作为生物材料备受推崇，因为这些蛋白质纤维具有卓越的强度和韧性。 大多数关于拉铲丝的知识都来自对两个物种的研究。 已描述的蜘蛛丝超过 34,000 种，而且大多数蜘蛛丝除了拉丝外还吐出多种类型的丝，因此蜘蛛丝的种类极其丰富。 实际上，人们对蜘蛛丝的机械特性和遗传学知之甚少。 Hayashi 博士的首要目标是记录蜘蛛丝广泛的分子和生物力学变化。 为此，她将对不同种类的蜘蛛纺成的丝纤维进行拉伸测试，然后克隆丝腺组织中表达的基因转录本。 她研究的第二个目标是追踪丝基因序列在蜘蛛进化过程中如何变化。 这项工作涉及根据 DNA 序列重建蜘蛛的系统发育历史。为了实现她的研究目标，Hayashi 博士将培训一名博士后科学家和一名研究生。 此外，加州大学河滨分校的本科生将通过小型独立项目参与，这些项目旨在在一两个学季内完成。 Hayashi 博士的研究结果将推进对丝蛋白和蜘蛛进化的了解，并将显着扩大蜘蛛 DNA 序列的国际数据库。 这项工作还与正在开发的大规模生产人造蜘蛛丝的商业技术相关。 将丝纤维的性能与特定丝基因序列联系起来的相关数据对于新型生物材料的设计至关重要。